‘Twas the Day After Christmas (TV series episode)
"''Twas the Day After Christmas" ''was the 10th episode of Season 10 of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H, also the 228th overall series episode. Written by Elias Davis and David Pollock and directed by Burt Metcalfe, it originally aired on December 28, 1981. Synopsis On the day after Christmas, the 4077th decides to try out an English tradition, Boxing Day, where the officers and enlisted personnel change places for a day. Full episode summary The 4077th is celebrating Christmas with a regiment of British troops. When they mention their Boxing Day tradition, Klinger is all for trying at the 4077th. Col. Potter is initially against it, but when he sees it will boost morale, he goes for it, and has the officers and enlisted men trade places for a day. Col. Potter becomes the company clerk, putting Klinger in charge. Winchester ends up working as the cook's assistant, and Hawkeye and Father Mulcahy take up nursing duties in Post Op. He assigns B.J. and Margaret to KP duties, and makes Kellye Head Nurse. Winchester prepares an ambitious menu, but the cook, Sgt. Pernelli (Val Bisoglio) isn't interested in complicated meals that require esoteric ingredients. He tries to convey to Winchester the urgency of getting the food cooked fast - with the volume of people about to come into the Mess Tent, they don't have time for fancy meals. Col. Potter has a steep learning curve, too - he finds out firsthand how much work Klinger has to wade through each day, and he goofs when he arranges a trade for gasoline by giving up ten pounds of peanut brittle which is as valuable as gold. Klinger tries to be comforting, and tells Potter to check with him the next time. A patient of Hawkeye's takes a turn for the worse, but because of a bad storm I-Corps can't send a chopper to take him to the 121st. The patient's thyroid gets set off, and his temperature shoots dangerously high. They need to find a way to cool him down, but there's no ice in the freezers - it all melted when the generator was turned off to save on gasoline. The patient is taken into the OR, and Hawkeye gets an idea how to cool him down - with an apology to Father Mulcahy, Hawkeye takes a scalpel and cuts giant holes in some of the windows (which Mulcahy previously cleaned), letting the frigid weather inside. The next day, the patient is recovering, and everyone is back in their normal positions, each of them now with a better understanding of one another. Winchester remarks that the food wasn't even that bad. Fun Facts * The only officer who doesn't complain about the new workload is Father Mulcahy, a recurring trait he's shown in previous episodes - a nice character touch. * Nurse Kellye (Kellye Nakahara) is addressed as "Lt. Nakahara" by Klinger as he is handing out the Boxing Day assignments. In most other episodes, she was called "Lt. Kellye." "Nurse Kellye," or just "Kellye," and her character's name for most of the series was scripted as "Kellye Yamato." * The character of The Cook, identified as Sergeant Salvatore Pernelli, has more screen time and lines in this episode than in the entire series combined. * Although there are many theories about Boxing Day, the exchange of people trading jobs reminds people of a tale, where a husband and wife switch their chores, to which the husband finds out how hard his wife works, and how he tries to simplify certain things, like having the cow grazing on the roof of his house, only to nearly kill it as it almost fall off the roof. Guest stars *Val Bisoglio as Sergeant Salvatore Pernelli *Michael Ensign as Major Cass *Leo Lewis as Sergeant Barnstable *Kellye Nakahara as Lieutenant Kellye Yamato *Jeff Maxwell as Igor Straminsky *Roy Goldman as Corporal Roy Goldman *Bill Snider as Enlisted Man Category:Season 10 episodes